A strike by workers at the port of Marseilles, which has entered its 11th day, is seriously disrupting the import traffic of fruit and vegetables through the French Mediterranean gateway.
One company badly-hit is Leon Vincent SA, a specialist in logistics services for perishable goods and the major operator of the port's fruit terminal.
"The strike could not have come at a worse time of the year for us as we're getting into the high season for fruit and vegetable imports into Europe," a company official said.
"We'd normally be handling 3,000 to 4,000 pallets a week, plus containerised shipments but since the strike started this has fallen off dramatically and we are only operating at 20 per cent our normal activity. Some of the smaller ships have their own cranes so we can get some unloading done without port workers intervening although it takes longer but it's either that or nothing at Marseilles the moment."
Leon Vincent works closely with Agrexco’s Carmel Shipping, which normally would be bringing in peppers, tomatoes and melons on a regular basis. But traffic is being diverted to other ports such as Barcelona and Genoa and Savona Vado in Italy.
Some vessels carrying avocados from Kenya and oranges from South Africa were able to diverted to the port of Sete, which is only 200km from Marseilles.
"With ships being re-routed, we are trying to "recover" shipments by trucking them from substitute ports to our Marseilles hub for distribution in France and also to the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. But in some cases importers are preferring to make alternative arrangements, by-passing Marseilles. This probably means delays in deliveries reaching customers as Marseilles is better located than most Mediterranean ports to provide pan-European distribution," said the spokesperson.
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